1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to the field of information handling system power consumption, and more particularly to a method and system for dynamically adjusting power consumption of an information handling system based on power source capability.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Information handling systems have steadily improved in capability over the past several years due in large part to improvements in the speed at which processing components operate. For example, semiconductor devices have evolved to include greater numbers of circuits that operate at faster clock speeds, resulting in faster and more powerful processors to handle, transfer and display information. However, as information handling system components improve in speed and capability they also tend to increase the power that they consume. Power consumption of components becomes a concern where an information handling system operates on internal power, such as with portable information handling systems that operate on a battery. Manufacturers attempt to minimize the size of portable information handling systems by limiting the size of internal batteries and conserving power consumption to help a battery charge last. “Smart” batteries communicate information about their battery charge state to information handling systems so that the information handling system may shut down before the battery charge expires. Absent the communication of charge information from a battery to an information handling system, an involuntary shutdown generally occurs without an opportunity to save existing data and with an increased risk of damage to electronic components.
One difficulty with designing an information handling system to run on internal battery power is selecting a battery having a maximum discharge rate that exceeds the power consumption of the information handling system. For instance, as the power consumed by individual components of an information handling system have increased, variations in the power consumed by a complete system have also increased. If components demand a surge of power from the battery, the maximum discharge rate of the battery may be exceeded even though the battery capacity has not discharged sufficiently to trigger an automatic shutdown. The selection of a battery is further complicated because battery discharge current is typically not consistently proportional to the power provided by a battery and increases over battery use. The maximum power a battery can supply generally decreases as the battery discharges because the voltage provided by each cell decreases as it discharges and a fixed maximum current is generally enforced for each cell to safely provide. Thus, information handling systems that experience spikes in power consumption that exceed their battery's reduced discharge capacity are subject to unpredictable shutdowns even though battery charge remains.